Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism? The use of another person’s words, ideas, creations,

without stating where they came from or giving credit.

Why be concerned? It is dishonest It is unfair to you and others It is ILLEGAL under the Copyright Act of 1968! You can fail your assignment/paper You can get suspended In college, you can fail an entire course or possibly face

expulsion!

Forms of Plagiarism

Borrowing someone’s paper and putting your name on it, trying to pass it off as your own.

Handing in a paper that has already been turned in to another teacher, for another assignment.

Copying and pasting from the Internet, without paraphrasing! (even if you cite it!)

Borrowing another person’s ideas/information/creation without giving credit to them.

In-Text Citations

What are they? References, inside your paper, that acknowledge

where you’ve incorporated an author’s words, facts, ideas, photos.

Citations include the author’s last name and page number from where you’ve taken the information.

There are three types of in-text citations: Direct - Long Quotes Direct - Short Quotes Paraphrases

Today we will be focusing on Paraphrasing

You do not need to cite… Common knowledge – a simple statement or basic fact that is likely

to be known by a lot of people. There are 365 days in a year Elvis Presley is one of the most famous musicians in history George Washington was the first President of the United States Plants need water to grow

Your own opinions I feel the death penalty should be abolished Society needs to do more to combat global warming

Common sayings/proverbs “you can’t judge a book by its’ cover” You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink

If you are unsure of whether or not you have to cite, just cite to be safe!

In-Text Citations

You need to cite:

Any information you borrow that is not your own original idea, creation, or opinion!

Facts Statistics Photos Any information that is not common

knowledge!

MLA: ParaphrasingWhat is a paraphrase? Taking something someone else said and

putting it into your own words. The sentence structure and wording must be

changed but the meaning remains the same! When you paraphrase you should summarize

and condense the author’s main ideas! Paraphrasing is a a legitimate way to borrow

from a source only when accompanied by the correct citation! You must always cite paraphrases!

MLA: Paraphrasing

Tips for paraphrasing: You can’t paraphrase what you do not understand! Read your sources/articles carefully! Make sure you know what each word in the article

means. Have a dictionary and a thesaurus handy! Highlight the truly important facts/main ideas. Try saying what you’ve learned from the article in

your own words without looking at the original. Write down your ideas; chances are this is a start to a good paraphrase!

Paraphrasing

There are two different ways to cite a paraphrase:1) Mention the author’s name in the sentence – only need page number

in citation

Example of a paraphrase where we mention the author: According to author Carl Waldman, Hernán Cortés's conquest of

the Aztec Empire was the first large-scale confrontation between the native peoples of the Americas and the Europeans (194).

2) Do not mention the author’s name in the sentence – need last name of author and page number in the citation

Example of a paraphrase without mentioning the author: Hernán Cortés's conquest of the Aztec Empire was the first large-scale confrontation between the native peoples of the Americas and the Europeans (Waldman 194).

*If you do not know the author’s name, you must put part of the title in the citation, example: (“Hurricane Katrina” 47)

MLA: ParaphrasingFormat of paraphrase in your paper 1. Type right alongside your text, no need to start a new line or indent. 2. Do not use quotation marks since these are your OWN WORDS!3. Period comes after the citation, or parentheses.

Example: (mentioning the author in the text)As Wendy Martin suggested, Emily Dickenson firmly believed that we cannot fully comprehend life unless we also understand death (625).

no quotation marks period comes after the citation.page number only in this citation because

we’ve already mentioned the author!

author

MLA: ParaphrasingOriginal

The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is the source of our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate. The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity.

From: Cousteau, Jacques. “Climate Change.” Discovery. May 2005: 17.

Legitimate paraphrase:

According to Jacques Cousteau, the activity of people is jeopardizing a delicate natural mechanism that controls the earth’s climate. He fears that human activity could interfere with the balance between the sun, the source of the earth’s heat, and the important source of cold from Antarctic waters that flow north and cool the oceans and atmosphere (Cousteau

17).

MLA: ParaphrasingTip for citing paraphrases…. If you paraphrase more than once from the same source within

a single paragraph, and no paraphrases from other, different sources intervene, you may just give a single citation at the end of the paragraph.

In this case, it is a good idea to mention the author’s name in the beginning of the paragraph!

HOWEVER… If you are combining information from different authors and different

sources into one paragraph, you do have to cite each paraphrase separately!

Paraphrasing

You are going to play The Cite is Right!

http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/citeisright.html